In modern vehicles, particularly with the increased availability of infotainment systems in vehicles, vehicle users have a number of media systems at their disposal. These media systems may be factory installed and/or may be a vehicle user's personal system and connected through connections provided in the vehicle. These connections can be wired or wireless connections. Further, vehicle users have multiple ways to listen to media. For example, the media can be listened to directly from the source (e.g., an am/fm radio or satellite radio), via streaming media from an in-vehicle device, and/or via streaming from a remote system (e.g., over the Internet).
Various examples exist of systems which are capable of providing media content in a vehicle. As one example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,200,357 to Janik et al. describes an automotive storage and playback device and method for using the same. An automotive storage and playback device and method for using the same are described. The automotive storage and playback device is capable of being detachably coupled to an automobile. The device includes a wireless transceiver to receive compressed digital content automatically from a computer system via a wireless local area network based on user defined preferences input into the computer system. The wireless transceiver is communicably coupled to the wireless local area network when the wireless transceiver is a predetermined distance from a wireless local area network access point. The device also includes a decoder and converter to decompress and convert the digital content. The decompressed and converted digital content is sent to be played on an output device in the automobile.
Outside of the vehicle environment, there are also many options from which to play media. Increasingly, many of these systems have wireless capability for communicating with other devices.